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The Vampire Goes Missing
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Thursday, September 16, 2004
10:38:00 AM MST
Cross-posted from my LJ blog.
Quick note: see http://www.freewebs.com/elven_vampire/ for LaVerne Ross's reaction to all the negative comments her published but unedited book has generated. Since I started following this story a couple of days ago, she has made her book unavailable, although initially the reviews - including her own angry reaction to them - remained on Amazon. Now the listing is gone from Amazon entirely.
What has she learned from this experience?
It's evident that she's learned firsthand that a meme can spread all over the Internet, and that people can be cruel. She's learned that Publish America is a rip-off that doesn't edit books as promised. She's learned that it's not a good idea to let a book get into the marketplace in the condition this book was in. She has learned that editing is necessary, and that 96 pages is a little on the short side. She has learned that you can't use a copyrighted photo of a movie star without permission, even if you've added fangs and blood to the picture.
What has she not learned?
* She has not learned why the book engendered so much negative comment. She believes that the nastiness is all the work of a handful of "stalkers" who have solicited the help of friends and relatives for the purpose of attacking her personally. Sorry, Ms. Ross, that's not it. Some people may have been a bit malicious, but most of this comment came about because a lot of literate fans of the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres were amused by the extreme ineptness of the prose and by the mixing of genres. They are not a cabal of people who don't understand the genre. Many of the people who commented have avatar thumbnails that reference manga or the tv series Angel, and one of the links to all this is on the blog of a well-known science ficton and fantasy editor. The meme has spread because large numbers of fantasy fans find it amusing, and share it around. This is not a conspiracy. The people who laughed at your book do not care about you personally, except to speculate on the sort of person who would let a book with such severe deficiencies get into the marketplace.
* She has not learned sentence structure. The quotes from the book on her web page seem to be lacking a few of the mistakes found in the original review, but most of the problems, particularly what my English teachers called "frags and run-ons," remain intact.
I wish you all the best, Ms. Ross. I really do. And I'm sorry you're so hurt and angry. But there are still things you need to learn before your revised, expanded book ventures out into the world. Good luck with that.
Karen
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10:38:00 AM MST
The Vampire Goes Missing
Quick note: see http://www.freewebs.com/elven_vampire/ for LaVerne Ross's reaction to all the negative comments her published but unedited book has generated. Since I started following this story a couple of days ago, she has made her book unavailable, although initially the reviews - including her own angry reaction to them - remained on Amazon. Now the listing is gone from Amazon entirely.
What has she learned from this experience?
It's evident that she's learned firsthand that a meme can spread all over the Internet, and that people can be cruel. She's learned that Publish America is a rip-off that doesn't edit books as promised. She's learned that it's not a good idea to let a book get into the marketplace in the condition this book was in. She has learned that editing is necessary, and that 96 pages is a little on the short side. She has learned that you can't use a copyrighted photo of a movie star without permission, even if you've added fangs and blood to the picture.
What has she not learned?
* She has not learned why the book engendered so much negative comment. She believes that the nastiness is all the work of a handful of "stalkers" who have solicited the help of friends and relatives for the purpose of attacking her personally. Sorry, Ms. Ross, that's not it. Some people may have been a bit malicious, but most of this comment came about because a lot of literate fans of the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres were amused by the extreme ineptness of the prose and by the mixing of genres. They are not a cabal of people who don't understand the genre. Many of the people who commented have avatar thumbnails that reference manga or the tv series Angel, and one of the links to all this is on the blog of a well-known science ficton and fantasy editor. The meme has spread because large numbers of fantasy fans find it amusing, and share it around. This is not a conspiracy. The people who laughed at your book do not care about you personally, except to speculate on the sort of person who would let a book with such severe deficiencies get into the marketplace.
* She has not learned sentence structure. The quotes from the book on her web page seem to be lacking a few of the mistakes found in the original review, but most of the problems, particularly what my English teachers called "frags and run-ons," remain intact.
I wish you all the best, Ms. Ross. I really do. And I'm sorry you're so hurt and angry. But there are still things you need to learn before your revised, expanded book ventures out into the world. Good luck with that.
Karen
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This entry has 6 comments: (Add your own)
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LOL I went to her website to read her reactions to the negative comments. What I am left wondering, is English her first language? I can barely read her own thoughts! They are nearly incomprehensible! Yikes.
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Wow....tough crowd!
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Or as my tenth grade English teacher used to say: "You can't break the rules unless you know them in the first place."
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Sure, Shelly, I'm always in favor of people linking to my postings! I'm sure you'll agree with me that there's a world of difference between the occasional sentence fragment for effect (L'Engle does this fairly often) and writing large numbers of fragments and run-on sentences because you don't understand about subjects and predicates or the proper uses of commas. As a stylistic trick, a frag or run-on should be used only to serve a purpose, such as showing the pov character's state of mind or deliberately breaking up the prose. Ms. Ross's frags and run-ons are purpose-free.
And yeah, people can be jerks online. Some people seem to enjoy being malicious from the safe anonymity of their keyboards, while others are simpless thoughtless. - K.
9/17/04 8:15 AM
* Ms. Ross has not learned her lesson about self-publishing, it would appear. My father used to say, "a fool and his money are soon parted." She is living proof of the truth of the homily.
Sad. So very sad.